Counting Sheep and Days
by Bowlerhatwearer
Summary: Fate plays sometimes mysterious things. Sometimes it is good...and sometimes it is not. It's up to a young Pronghorn and her friend to help her older sister.
1. Chapter 1: Game Over

**(A/N) Hello and welcome to my first published story/fan fiction on**

 **I hope you will like what you read, and I hope that my writing is readable (English is not my main language.)**

 **Anyway, we will see us again, at the end of the chapter.**

 **Good Luck, and enjoy the reading and, have interest ^^**

"No! Right, I said right! Stupid controller!" The figure on the Screen made a move to the right, but too late. The green-red colorized monster touched the blue figure and a big black and red blinking "Game Over" appeared on the TV-Screen followed by a deep voice who also said "Game Over! You lose." Cassia wanted to throw the controller right in the metallic wall but right before she could smash the joystick in her anger, the door to the room opened and her older sister, Clove, stepped in, together with a Doctor. "Sis!" shouted her younger sister excited. They both hugged each other.

"How are you?" asked Clove with a worried tone in her voice. "As always, I'm fine. Well….I would feel better If I finally could get out of this stupid room". "Just one more day, Cassia. Tomorrow you can leave. She can leave am I right?"

"Of course Lady Clove. The last day is always just about observation, nothing more. No more treatments or studies."

"Thank Chaos! It was boring and I couldn't play Video games until now…" "The Game devices could let the medical equipment malefu…" "I know. It's not like you remembered one million times." Cassia took the cushion under her head, putted it on her face and let out a grunt. "Cassia behave yourself….the time will past fast."

"I hope you are right. Or I'm really dying because of boredom." Exactly after Cassia finished her sentence the Door opened again. An Egg-Soldier stepped in. It was a Deer, around Cassia's age and also with a similar height: "Lady Cassia. I brought the supplies you asked for." His voice sounded nervous and a bit annoyed, annoyed because he didn't like the smell of sanitizer that was in the air and because the box was a pretty heavy. "Finally, now the day gets a lot more interesting". The older Pronghorn watched as the Egg-Soldier put the box on the left side of the bed and opened it. There were more than thirty games in the Box. But not only games, there was also another console.

"Cassia, are… are you going to play all of this games? In one night?" Clove was a shocked and worried. "Chill sis. I'm not playing all by myself, the guy here l is supporting me." The young deer gave Clove a nervous nod. Clove really wanted to talk it out from her sister, but she was really exhausted. She didn't get really any sleep. "Good….but only this time…Cassia I will be back in an hour just to see if everything is alright. Doctor would you mind to come with me?"

"Of course not, Lady Clove." The doctor took a clipboard with some papers and her filler. Since her sister didn't gave her a response she asked again: "Cassia. Have you listened to me?" The younger Pronghorn gave an annoyed nod. She was completely concentrated in winning the game both played right now. Clove gave a sigh before she left with the doctor.

…

"Of course I understand your concern about your sisters health, but I can promise, Lady Clove, that as long as she is not getting injured….there is no need to worry."

"That is the problem. She will get injured. Even if she just trips and get a small cut of it... And please don't tell me the chances are minimal."

"I understand that you are worried, but there is right now nothing else that we can do against her sickness". The Doctor, a female racoon, thirty-five years old with light brown short hair, sat down near a table and gave Clove a mug before she walked to a kitchen cabinet, taking out a little box full of tea bags that where filled with black tea. Clove waited a bit until the water coloured itself dark from the tea, and then she took a sip: "I know, and I can't even leave with Cassia". She spoke the last sentence very silently. "Understandable. He is cruel, one of the cruellest persons I have seen in my live. Lady Clove, I really would recommend that you would get some sleep", Clove wanted to object but the Doctor continued talking: "I know you are worried about your sister. But there is nothing going to happen. It's just observation, nothing more. And I hope you don't mind my talk, but you don't look too great. "

Clove went silent for a moment. She took another sip of her tea. "Maybe you are right, but…it's complicated. I want to be there for her. She is my little sister. I was there for her since the beginning. Since bad luck came over both of us, I want that she have a good life, a better, a safe life." It was the Doctor who now became quiet. "I'll better take a look after her, just for a minute." "Will you go to rest after that?" asked the racoon with a tone of worried distrust in her voice. "We will see" Both made their way down to Cassia.

"That he is capable for something like this is truly savage. But I'm sure there will come the time for you and your sister. Someone told me a long time ago that 'Hope dies last'" "I hope that you are right. "Clove went quiet again and touched her head. It was like someone or something stabbed her in the head. A slight pain at first became worse and worse in a matter of seconds. She breathed heavily. As the Doctor saw the breakdown of Clove, that she didn't look well and lean herself on a wall, she went back to the Egg Boss: "Are you not feeling well?" Every muscle inside her burned like fire. "You have fever. Shall I…" She couldn't feel her skin anymore. Her Hands, she couldn't control them and her legs where shaking in an extremely manner. Then she fell. She couldn't raise her voice. Nothing. She couldn't move an inch in and of her body, except hearing. That was all. There was panic everywhere inside her head, fear and the worry about Cassia.

"Lady Clove!", the Racoon Doctor stared in shock and dismay. She had luck that two egg-soldiers were patrolling in the near of her in the next corridor. They haven't noticed yet what happened. "You two, help me!" As they two saw what the doctor meant and wanted, they were there as fast as they could. "Doctor what happened!? Is she..." "No she is breathing and alive, but..." In sets of three they carried the unmoving body of the Eggboss. "If I guess right, I hope that I'm wrong. I really hope so. Help me to bring her in the patient's room!" Carefully the soldiers took her whilst the doctor went ahead. Still with the fast working in her mind what to do and the activating of her Pager to inform other doctors and medical staff and also with the though ….what to tell Lady Cassia.

…

"The Winner is…CASSI3R" "But, but that…that's the eight time in a row? How?" the deer asked in shock. "I told you my moves are better", Cassia stuck her tongue out. "No way… you are cheating!" "Cheating?! Just admit that you can't win", Cassia grinned. "Then…let…let's switch controllers. I'm sure this here is defective." "Yeah yeah yeah, it's the Controllers fault. But fiiine, here" Slightly bugged she switched the controller with the Deer: "Let's make a bet. If I win this time, you have to do my shift." Ok. And If I win….I…I..I want that you g…"

Suddenly the sound of the game was outplayed by fast running. Someone tried to open the door by pushing it, but realized soon that they had to drag the handle. The Door was opened with brute force so it hit a small table with a vase that started to shake dangerously but fortunately did not fell on the floor and broke. "Hey! What..?" A group of at least twelve members of the Medical team tried as fast as they could to squeeze themselves through the doorway at the same time. The medics started to fix the room up for another patient. Some of them prepared medical equipment; others put cover on a second bed, arranging it correctly.

Every one of them was in a nervous haste. "Do you know what's up?" The deer shrugged with his shoulder. Two egg soldiers who carried a person came in the room. But Cassia couldn't see who it was, because the medical staff started to surround the two Egg Soldiers. A nurse took the curtain of the bed, pulling it open. Luckily for Cassia, a nurse came out from behind of the curtain to search for something.

„Would you please tell me what's going on here? ", she asked. The nurse glanced at Clove, and then she made a worried and nervous expression. She tried at first to say something; she didn't; turning around and went back to the patient who couldn't be seen thanks to the white curtains. Cassia tried to speak with other people from the medical staff but every one of them just tried to ignored her. And that really angered her. „Can someone finally tell me what's going on!" Slowly, the racoon doctor walked towards her. She looked tense.

„Lady Cassia, there was an incident and your sister..."„What is with my sister? " The young pronghorn stared at the racoon. The doctor remained silent „What is with my sister? " Her tune sounded a worried and Cassia began to shake her by her shoulders. „Your sister was involved" She shoved the doctor, the curtains and some people from the medical staff away. „Clove? " Her sister didn't move. The eyes, concentrated on the celling. „Clove? ", asked Cassia again her sister didn't response.

With the thought that her sister was completely motionless and that she couldn't do anything about it brought tears of sadness into the young Pronghorn. But the sadness soon turned into anger. The pronghorn pulled down one of the medics so they would stand at the same height: „I want to know exactly what happened! " „I always thought that it was some kind of hoax", he answered afraid. Cassia let him go and turned to the doctor.

„But it's true. It's not a joke. Between doctors, it's real, not a hoax, not a joke "„What is real? I want to know it right now! "„Maybe we should..." „I want to know it here and right now! " „It is something that is called... it doesn't have a real name, but we call it spontaneous cybernetic failure. It's very rare, only 0,08 percent of the people with cybernetics are affected from it" „I want to know what it does to my sisters. No statistics, no gossip. I want to know what it does to my sister! "

„Every one of us has cybernetics in us. It's a demand when we become citizens of the Egg Empire. I got them, you got them, your sister got them…every one of us has hem. They cybernetics in your sister failed and it proceeded in a lockdown which affected the whole body of your sister. She can't move, she can't speak, I don't even know if she can hear or see. And the worst is that we can't do anything against it. There is no solution to it. That's all I can say. I'm sorry"

Cassia was like split in two. On the one hand she was sad, wanted to cry, to go to her sister give her a hug and try to help her. On the other hand she was angry. Not at the medical staff, but angry at the Cybernetics, angry at the failure, angry that there is no cure and angry at him, Eggman. She let out a scream, filled with anger, hate and also full of sadness. She whipped her tears and ran away, out of the room. She closed the door fast, with force. The draft was strong enough to let the white vase fall on the ground, and shatter her in pieces.

 **(A/N) And here we are, at the end of the chapter ^^**

 **Not really something happy and maybe even enjoyable what happened here.**

 **Truth to be told I can't say when I will publish the next chapter. I'm really sorry for that but I'm a pretty slow writer and I don't know if my beta reader has always time to help me with my story (Since he has work and I have soon school again)**

 **I hope you could enjoy the first Chapter of my story and I hope we will see us again in the next Chapter of "Counting Black Sheep and Days" ^^**

 **Wit friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


	2. Chapter 2: Recalculate

**(A/N) First of all I really want to apologize that it takes so long for me to write a next chapter for my story.**

 **Unfortunately school has a tight grip around me with learning, projects and exams.**

 **Sooo, I can't make any promises when the next chapter will come. I'm really sorry about that.**

* * *

Whilst the racoon doctor remained silent, the egg soldier, the deer, looked right now confused, but began to speak. "So you are telling me that lady Clove cannot be helped?" "I-I don't know." "Great! This is just wonderful!" Annoyed and also angry the deer threw one of the game controllers on the bed. "It's, it's not like, I d-don't know…" The deer took a breath….and scratched with his right hand on his head. "You could have told Cassia that…with t-tact?!"

The doctor's voice went normal, but had now a little tone of bitterness involved „How am I supposed to speak with tact, in such a case, soldier." Both went silent "I'm going to contact Dr Eggman about this. I would recommend that you search and look for lady Cassia. The Doctor needs to know about this, that are the rules and unfortunately, he might be our only hope right now."

…

The corridor to the communication room was long, cold, and darker than the others. But maybe the feeling, that it was dark and cold, where just an imagination, played in and from her mind. That was mixed with different feelings. Feelings that where known as. Nervous, scared and unknowingness. Her mind was like a calculator that was trying to find the answer of a complicated mathematical formula and now, it was going through every solution it knew. But every answer he tried was wrong. She entered the room. Empty, no one was there. Only she and a half filled paper cup with i cold coffee that stand near on one of the consoles.

With haste she activated the communication device. The screen went on and the symbol of the Eggman Empire appeared. She typed in the name on the keyboard, every button she pressed, she pressed it with haste. After that, she went to the options. The call was now a high priority call with the number four, the highest number in priority calls. Then she pushed send. Careful, not too hard. She waited. Maybe a minute, or maybe just some seconds like ten or twenty. Then **He** appeared on the screen. The expression of his eyes (Well mostly of the forehead since the eyes where covered in glasses) seemed annoyed.

He looked down at her surprised then again annoyed. "I hope there is a good reason that this was sent as a high priority call and that a simple subordinate is calling me." She tried to look normal, emotionless, not to let any emotion trough. "Sir" She, the racoon made a hand signs to expression the respect she had to the doctor, then a short timed bow. "Lady Clove, there was an accident with her cybernetics. She just broke down. She is completely emotion and motionless." She wanted to say that she was afraid that the cybernetics failed…or they had a fault. But she was sure that the Doctor would see that as an insult against him. She hoped he would tell her what to do.

Maybe how she could help her superior or that they should make Clove ready that she would be transported to the Doctors HQ so he would "fix" her. "And where is her sister by now…the young one with the metal face?" The doctor grinned. The racoon gulped. "We…we don't know but she i-…" "Good." "G-Good?" the racoon now stuttered "Do I look I would care about that twerp. Well, I don't." He grinned. "Prepare everything. You will get a new egg boss but not too soon. There are far more important things to do right now."

"Sir, with great respect but Lady Clove…what should we do with her? We, we can't ju-" He stood up and he looked more annoyed than before. "Do you think I have time to care for one single individual just because she can't do anything anymore!? Do you know how much time and resources that would waste? Enough! I would need to rewrite everything. On everyone! As long as there is no new egg boss. I assignee you as the replacement since her sister is unsuitable for that job. And it seems you are the only one who was intelligent enough to call me! Eggman out! " For a short time the screen was black, and then the eggman empire symbol was once again on the monitor. But now the grin looked more sadistic than before.

Slowly, she went out of the room, right in the direction of Clove and Cassias Room. Her mind was for a short amount of time cloudy. Did that really happened, or was it more a nightmare. But it was real and once again the calculator in her mind, searched for solutions. Cassia was probably and with high chances in the little housing unit where she and her sister lived. From far away, she could hear a voice. A voice she already knew to whom it belonged. At first she couldn't understand what he said, but the more she got to the housing unit, the more it got clearer. "Lady Cassia! Open up! Please…at least say something!" He sounded worried and his expression told the same. There was a bit sweat of fear that ran down, the eyes went from left to right in half a second. He was worried. Worried that Cassia would have done something stupid to herself. Right now he wished he could help her.

And right now the only thing he wanted was to break the door into smithereens so he could enter. The subordinate leaned his head on the door. A cough paid his attention when he saw the doctor. For a short time he got hope. The thought, to tell lady Cassia that her older Sister and his supervisor would be soon alright, disappeared fast when he saw the expression of the female racoons face. Most of the time the doctors face was motionless. But now, it told him "The Doctor won't help us." Her face told that. But her thoughts were not there.

She thought about her past. A Team she was involved. Thought about a person. A man she once knew. "Could he…but, ten..." "Dam it!" She looked to the soldier. Again he knocked with his hand on the metal door with full force. The thoughts she had where gone for now and she searched with her right hand in one of the pockets of her coat. A white blank card appeared. "It will be faster that way. As a doctor I have the permission to open personal rooms. In case there is an emergency." He looked at her and gave the Doctor a small nod as a silent sign for "thank you". The metal door slid in the hollow of the left wall with a small whirr.

"Lady Cassia" carefully the Egg-Soldier stepped in the room. It looked normal, except that some objects laid on the ground, probably with force since some of them got damaged. "Lady Cassia" once again the Deer asked, this time more carefully, worried and nervous than before. "She seems to be, emotional. Which is relatable, many people would act like her, if they would be in the identical situation." The racoon doctor picked up a framed photograph. The Glass had due of being thrown on the ground a crack. "Did you hear that?" she looked to the soldier.

There were bumping, which came clearly from a little corridor that was on the left side from both. The door was, with no surprise made out of metal. But it looked "lighter" than the door before. Also it had a black golden coloured doorknob. Letters made out of clay. Which spelled "Cassia" and where glazed in green. Also there was a big red shield with the words "Keep Off! Especially Boys!". "She is in there. "Both, doctor and soldier nodded. The Soldier knocked on the door three times. "Lad-"

"GO AWAY!" The voice sounded more than angry, but also was it with sadness and a bit of frustration. "Leave me alone." Silent. Again. Relieved and a bit of nervous and stuttering the Soldier said. "I-It's Ok, that y-you are upset. B-but maybe later…later we could talk." the last words went completely nervous and nearly death silent out of his mouth. They planned to go but then, there was a little "click" and it didn't take any realizing for the Soldier to know that the Door got unlocked. With a little shuddering the Soldier opened the Door slowly. After it was big enough so he could slip in the room he went as fast as he could to the young Pronghorn, who laid in her Bed, her face half buried in her pillow.

They eyes looked like they weren't there, far away, somewhere else. Still the soldier made a sigh of relief. Cassia didn't look like she harmed herself. The silence was once again broken when the soldier blurted out "Lady Cassia, we got worried sick about you." It sounded more like a worried mother would say these words, instead of a subordinate. He set himself carefully on the edge of her bed, the doctor still stayed in the room. Observing and thinking about the thought she was thinking, since all this happened.

Thinking about a person, that was different from others. It was calm, but also it felt cold in the room. "I always thought it would be in the other way, I really want to help her." The often playfully on the other hand sarcastic voice got replaced by one. That was weak, frustrated, and also a bit hopeless. "I thought she would take care of me and not the opposite. I will grow older, and Clove…" Cassia let out a short gasp, Tears where running again down her cheeks. "…she will stay like that forever. She will stay in a bed. Everything around her will chance. I want to help her! Like a sister should! But what can I do to make it for her better! I want to help her, but I CAN'T! What kind of sister am I, if I even can't do that?!"

Anger overcome her and buried her sadness away for a short moment. In this short moment, she took one of her tonfa and threw it to the wall in front of her. The tonfa got not damaged, but in the wall there was now a little crack. Her head sank again in the soft pillow. The Soldier was speechless, helpless and nervous. Desperate he looked to the doctor. But in the racoons head, right now it looked as like as in the head of the deer soldier. She chewed a bit on her pen. Should she tell the young Pronghorn what she knew? Was there a possibility?

One part of her mind screamed at her NOT to do it. It was so long ago, she only would make false hope. The other part screamed at her to DO it. It was still something, still hope. This time the least part of her mind won the game. The Doctor gulped.

"My Lady, I might…what I have to say is." She took a deep breath. "What I'm telling you now, might give you hope. But, I can't promise that it will work. The last time I hear about him was ten years ago. I want to apologise my lady that I haven't talked about this sooner. But you need to know, the chances that it can help your sister are 50/50. When not even 15 against 75." "Wait what?!" asked the Soldier in confusion.

The doctor was a bit scared, would Cassia get mad at her. Screaming at her how she dared to give her false hope. Or why she wasn't telling her this at the beginning. Slowly the pronghorn got up. "Continue." It sounded neutral. Surprised she did was she was told. "W-well as I said, the last time I had contact with him, was ten years ago. Maybe he doesn't even live where I suggest where he is." "But it's still a Chance Fifteen against seventy-five? If, i-f there is a C-chance to help my sister then I want to help her. It's worth a shot right? So who is he?" "Milenko Hatzinger, that is the man, who I hope can help you."

* * *

 **(A/N) Well what can I say, Milenko Hatzinger, the guy seems to be the only hope for Cassia and her dear deer game friend. ;.-)**

 **But now to the Reviews ^^**

 **Dragonborn759: I'm glad that you enjoyed my story. I hope we will see us again in the future of this story ^^ Well I wouldn't say that they are the only good thing of the reboot.**

 **I hope you dear readers could also enjoy this chapter of Counting Sheep and Days. And I hope we will sooner (that I hope) will see us again.**

 **With friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


	3. Chapter 3: Typing and Farewell

**Hello once again ^^**

 **I'm really sorry that I take my time with my chapters. Neither in the holidays nor now I really had time to publish nor to correct it.**

 **I hope you can enjoy the story anyway and I also hope that It won't take me so long again to write the next Chapter (No promises, I'm sorry ^^,,)**

* * *

„Lady Cassia….do, do you really have to go too on this journey. I-I can handle and go myself if you want." Cassia let out a sigh as she was packing her backpack. "I will go on this journey. Or do you think I will wait here and will run in a circle and wait for a miracle?" The young pronghorn let out a small sigh before closing her backpack. Nervous he tried to counter "N-no bu-" "No I won't! So I will go and find that Hatzinger guy. What kind of name even is that? And don't Lady me for the last time." With that Cassia was finished in packing. "B-but it's dangerous!" he blurted out. "That's my middle name." With that, Cassia took her backpack and went to the door, out of the living quarter followed by the Game Deer, who already too, had packed his backpack.

The fabric of his one was in dark grey and the edges black. Cassias one had purple fabric and a violet surrounding. The zipper too was in the colour of the edges. They weren't that big, like the ones like people who would travel around the world. But also not that small like students used. One each one of them was also a sleeping bag attached. Both sleeping bags were made in the same bright grey colour. One technician provided them, with the condition that both would bring them back without a scratch. They only packed necessary things. Clothing, food, bottled water, hygiene products, a map and other things. Everything that were (or maybe weren't) necessary for a supposed short travel. Cassia couldn't help it and packed a mobile Game device in her backpack.

Both, the Game Deer a bit behind Cassia went to the Doctor. Cassia breathed heavy. The Doctor would welcome them in the room, where her sister lies. She had to give Cassia some things before they could start their journey to the Man called Hatzinger. Silent she went through that metallic door that leads to the disinfected room and so also to her older sister and the Doctor. "And I want that the patrols are now doubled for the rest of the week. If this information leaks to a rebel or freedom fighter network, you can bet that they will take this in their benefit." One of the Egg-Soldiers with a touchpad stood beside her, nodding before giving the doctor a simple ok, then leaving through the door Cassia and the deer subordinate came in.

"I have everything prepared you both need. My Lady…" The racoon doctor took out from a white metallic sterile cupboard a packet. As the cupboard the packet was also white. Except from the black text that labelled and showed that in these packet was medicine, the red stripes. The label from the company was simple, a blood drop with a black E in the middle. Not to forget there was also a stamp that should proof that the medicine was controlled and tested by high professionals. The latter questioned Cassia since the medicine tasted bitter, really bitter. "There is maybe not a little chance that I don't have to take it wi-""My Lady that is out of question. And you-"The doctor looked to the soldier beside Cassia. "You make sure she takes her medicine in time."

With that the doctor gave the fourteen year old Egg Soldier two other packets that looked quite similar, but they were different from the stripes. "Lady Cassia has to take every day, one pill from each package. Understood?" He gave a hastily nod, Cassia on the other side frowned and made a sigh with her hand as she was ready to barf. "Also here is a mobile phone and a charger. I want that you call every day at least once. Of course call too immediately if there is an emergency." "Yeah, yeah I know." The room fell into silence and somehow it got colder. "My Lady I-""I know. Would you mind in giving me some privacy with, with Clove?" The racoon and also the deer gave a nod before they left through the door whilst the doctor was leaving she took from a table a small but bit of long brown package. Then the door got closed. Cassia was alone in the room, with her.

Step by step, slow and carefully she went to a white curtain. She already knew what would await her, behind it. Her sister lay in the bed. Except for the hearth rate monitor that made second for second a short, sharp tone, everything was silent. Cassia knew her sister breathe, but it was too calm to make a sound she could really hear. Clove, her older sister, her sis like she would call her often laid there making no movement and barley an expression. To see her sister like that, helpless made her sad and also a bit angry. But not so much like the last time. "Hey sis-"Cassia said calm whilst she was moving a bit more to the bed. "Y-you look g-great you-"Cassia let out a sigh, one that was weak and also with sorrow. Cassia felt silent before she made a short non humorous laugh mostly for stress relief.

"You are better in this. I-I, you were always there for me. Whenever I was sad or when I got sick, y-you don't deserve this!" Cassia sat herself beside Clove on the edge of the bed. There was only one thought in her mind.

The wish, her sister would wake up. Any moment now this bad dream would end and would get replaced by one, where this entire thing didn't happened, that her hand would begin to move again. Her sister would wake up, right here, they would hug each other. And everything would go on.

It didn't happen. Still, Cassia gave her older sister hug. "I will find a way to help you. Please don't be worried about me, I know you are. But I'm more worried about you!" She looked in the face of the older pronghorn. The eyes looked glassy. "I will find a way, I promise, I promise sis." With that, Cassia took her older sisters hand and looked quiet at her. From each eye was a tear running down, carefully they pioneered their way down, before they fell, one to the ground and one in Cloves Hand. "Don't worry, I can do this."

 **…**

Egg Hub

Continent: Soumerica

Location: Unknown

Time: Not stated

Temperature: 20 °C

Typing, just typing one a console. Clicking, typing and writing and then repeat. Mechanical parts moving, a glimmering monitor. There was a black background and bright green text. The computer was an older model. Clicking, typing and writing then repeat a sip from a cup of coffee. Still warm, a short sign from the mouth that showed refreshment. Clicking, typing and writing and then repeat. Mechanical parts were moving.

Nothing else was there in this dark room, except these noises, noises made by one figure. The computer was old, archaic to be honest. But he learned to write on this operating system. Why should he learn something else? New information, new theory's, new works where typed into the computer. A click, the file got saved, time for the next file. Another sound, not so familiar but he knew what it was. "Incoming call" He stood up. But before he could reach the communicator, wheezing. He sat on another office chair. He looks at his torso. And twist a compact button. Brown, nothing special, made out of metal and covered in brown plastic. He twisted it fast, still with force. That would do it for a while. He made a sigh of relief.

As he was pressing the button to take the call, he didn't even had to guess who was calling him. There was only one who would call him. Eggmans face looked for him angrier than usual. "My lord-""Forget the formalities! Your little code failed another time!" "My lord, which code, I-if I-I may a-ask?" "What code do you think? The activation code for the fails safe you idiot! That is the fifth time in two years!" "My lord-"He gasped some times out of fear. "- y-you have to understand, the code has its bugs. And one of them is this-""I'm aware about the little chance of spontaneous activation. But this time it hit one of my Egg Bosses!" The doctor's voice startled him, the office armchair he sat on circled a bit. "Are you aware how much time this will waste?!"

"I-I could rewrite t-the code b-but I- we w-would have to deact-""There is a too high risk that they find out! No, I will get a new one for Northamer. Make sure that no one else from the higher ups is affected. That's an order!" He remained silent for some time. There was only a silent clicking sound. It was always here. "Of course my lord." He grinned. He liked it to act like that. He liked acting in common. He never feared the Doc really. Playing like he had great respect. He never would have that for him. "What do I care about this? Is it my fault that the Egg Boss can't handle it? Northamer Egg Boss what? Well let's give it a look shall we?" With his office chair he rolled to his computer, shoving the other chair aside with force. He let out a gasp.

"Let's see-" Slowly he began typing on the keyboard, the key was kind of heavy to press, that was due of the age of the whole computer and hardware, justified. "Ah here we have it, the Northamer Egg base. The base is located on following coordinates. Hmhm. Followed numbers of the workers, soldiers, and technicians etc. Hmhm. interesting really, is interesting. Egg Boss, Clove the Pronghorn, Co Egg Boss, Cassia the Pronghorn." The man read further in the digital folder that gave him that information, before suddenly he stopped. "Wait what, Co Egg Boss?" Quickly he took the mouse wheel so that the file was going a bit upwards. Clicking on the name with the archaic computer mouse revealed another mouse. A Picture that was made out of ASCII codes appeared in front of his screen. A bit below was the name of the Pronghorn once again. He read the little Information he had about her. Cassia and also her sister didn't provide much Information in those files. Only where there cybernetic parts where. Of course the names, ages and also what the reason why they joined the Eggman Empire.

There was also a bit of information about their personality, to see if they would even in the worst case scenario, loyal to Eggman. And that was something that worried him. The Personality of the younger of the two Pronghorns worried him. "Stubborn, talks back, loyal to her sister and doesn't give up easy." It was her older sister that now was paralysed. And since it looked like that Eggman wouldn't deactivate the fail safes in the Northamer Egg Boss. There could be a change that she would try in finding a way.

He let out a laugh. That was ridiculous; there would no reason that she would try something like this. He closed her file and was back at the Northamer Base file. Just right now he wanted to close it when he saw something. Just for a second he kind of looked by accident over it. But then he saw it again. And his eyes began to open wide. One of the doctors name that where appointed. That the chance was not only real, but now even bigger that it was happening, which would mean that by some way she could find him. A simple brat could find him. Something he couldn't allow. If she, that brat would find out about the Fail Safes. It would probably a disaster, for the Eggman Empire, but mostly for him. He was scared, and then he smiled.

Why was he scared? He was in advantage. There was nothing to worry for him. He got up from the old computer and went to a newer model. He typed and wrote once again, but this time for a whole other reason. "Just a bit of watching and there it is." Again he smiled. "Computer." A deep female voice answered. "Yes? Supervisor. „You really should learn my name you know. Anyway, activate one of the scouts to the following coordinates-"

 **…**

"- and please be aware that you must not reveal that you are occupied with the Eggman Empire. That could trouble for both of you, and us. It's good that you are only going through neutral territory." Doctor, Co-Egg Boss and Egg Soldier stood outside of the Northamer Egg Base. It was a bit cold outside. A simple breeze was waving. "Yes, yes. We know, guess why we changed our dressing." Instead of her green and black egg uniform, Cassia wore a simple pink T-shirt that looked a bit washed out; to the shirt she wore long black trousers, simple made with two pockets on each side. Below the T-shirt there was simple black belt with a silver buckle and two holsters for her tonfa.

As simple as the trousers, so simple were also the black and white trainers with white shoelaces. The Deer Guy had a forest green hoodie with a hand pocket in the middle. He wore simple greyish brown trouser with also two pockets. The shoes, earth brown and caramel brown stripes one the side with hooks and loop fasteners. What was most noticeable on his clothing was probably the brown holster he had. Inside of it was a small laser gun. Nothing great but that wasn't also the purpose. It should be small so when the holster covered trough the hoodie so the gun wouldn't get noticed. "What about our cybernetics?" the deer looked a bit worried. "You are going through neutral territory, mostly through woods and not that far away from here. Hatzinger also lives in a village that cares little to the on-going clashes between Rebels and the Eggman Empire."

"He never really cared since the coup th-"The Racoon broke up her sentence. "You have luck that the village isn't too far away. I would say two or one day, if you travel fast. I also want that you take this with you, just in case." Slowly the doctor took out of one of her pockets a simple red-brownish purse. "In there is some money and a credit card. Even if it won't be that you two are long out. Still, take it; you never know what can happened." Cassias eyes glowed when she took out the credit card. "So, does that mean I could buy everything I want?" she joked, which the doctor got, still she remained serious. „In theory yes, but don't do it. These are my private savings and it will only be used for things that are necessary. Understood?" "U-understood." The Egg Soldier said nervous, the sharp glance of the Doctor made him more and more unsure.

Her expression turned to normal whilst she was clearing her throat. "Good. I believe it's then time, to say farewell. "She noted. There was a short breath. "I know you two can do it, be careful out there, as a doctor I prescribe you that."" "We will do fine doc, don't worry." "And you two look at each other, each one of you keeps an eye on the other." "We will, don't worry we can and will do this!" Cassia stated with determination "I know." There was one last exchange of expression of the three. Then the duo began to move on, leaving the doctor behind on the headquarter. "Good luck." She said in nearly silence.

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 **I want to say thank you to all my gained followers, those who gave me a favourite and or wrote me a Review.**

 **Thank you very much! And thank you that you have so much patience with me ^^**

 **With friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


	4. Chapter 4: Leaves, Pain, Clockwork

**Hello again my dear readers**

 **I'm still alive and so is this story, unfortunately I'm always short on time, apologize for letting you wait all the time and thank you for your understanding.**

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„Say….what are you doing? " Cassia eyes surveyed the Deer Guy, she made a concentrated expression and her eyes went a bit smaller when she observed him. The deer subordinate didn't notice and still looked at the little notepad. It was simple with different coloured paper. Right now there was a blank yellow one, which soon wasn't so blank anymore; a little line made from a pencil appeared. After that he looked up, right into Cassias direction. "What did you say?" His voice was now much calmer. Still a bit high pitched but that was normal for his voice. Not so nervous or a bit scared anymore when he talked with other people that had a higher rank than him. Even if Cassia was the Co Egg Boss, he didn't have to fear her. That was due of two reasons. First, Cassia and he where around the same year, one year difference and with that that they both where mostly if not even the only ones around that age in the Northamer egg base.

Secondly both liked and enjoyed video games. Right now he wasn't sure how it went that he and Cassia began to play with or against each other a game. Maybe it was because of a conversation, he wasn't sure. For him it was nice and also kind of a relief that there was someone else, who enjoyed playing video games. Even if from time to time both accused the other for cheating. "Earth to drabble drawer dork, what are you doing?" the young Pronghorn looked at him with an annoyed look, one of her hands waving near his eyes. "I uhm, I'm counting the days, to see how long it will take us." Cassia let out a snort "Right. And you know that's kind of useless when we are only some kilometres away from that village?" It was true, they had already one day behind them, but not much happened that day.

Mostly they walked, then some short small talk, then it already became night and they prepared to sleep. And now they were here, early in the morning, walking in a forest in the orange light of the rising sun. Whilst Cassia didn't look like it, most of her thought were for and with her sister. As much as she liked to terrorize the doctor, asking her every second if her sister was alright or if her condition changed. She knew that wouldn't help, still it was in her mind. The young pronghorn tried to distract herself, not to think about it, just for a moment to get her thoughts a bit clear. He walking got slower and slower, and then she stood still. At first her friend next to her walked ahead but when the deer saw that Cassia stood still, he also stopped in walking. The pronghorn looked around herself, first she noticed the brown, yellow or reddish leaves that laid one the ground, some were already damaged, had cracks others were still intact. Each of the trees looked different.

Their height, the width of the threes trunks, the age of course too. All were different in their appearance and also many of them from a different kind. Even if Cassia didn't knew from some the names. She liked it here; she still preferred her cosy room with her thick blankets and her video game console. Still it was something different. Calm nature and fresh air greeted them. She didn't had often the possibility to go to the woods, mostly only for a short time and then of course under the eye of her older sister who cared and looked that nothing would happened to her. Even if Cassia tried to distract herself, the thought of her older sister remained. "What do you think of that Hatzinger Guy?" The pronghorn started to move again, like when she stopped now in reverse, first slow then going faster.

"Well maybe he is a doctor too, or mechanic maybe." "Or he is a super old wizard that is made out of energy." The deer looked in disbelieve. "What? Haven't you heard that video games are sometimes too realistic?"

 **…**

Pain. Pain and the dry and sour taste in his mouth were the first things he felt before he even thought about opening the crusted eyes. It was always the same, but that was the price he had to pay. He let out a dry cough before his eyelids slowly began opening revealing a grey celling made of steel and sheets. A heavy breath came out, moving his head to the right he saw a machine; he always saw when he was ready to go to sleep, or heading to bed. It was tall, also grey and metallic like most of the things here. It kind of looked like one of those old computers that now stood in a museum. From time to time some LED blinked. Red, green or yellow like a traffic light. When he got out of the simple and metallic bed he just stood for some seconds looking at the machine again. The machine that was capable that he wouldn't die during sleep and made him able to rest.

Slowly he removed the tiny and slim cables that connected the button he had from time to time to twist, from the machine. From time to time he wished it would be different. But making him addicted to the Eggman? No, never, not in this live and in the next other ten. His eyes narrowed to the simple alarm clock, aha, tree hours of sleep. Enough, he had work to do. It was a simple walk through the kind of bad illuminated corridors. Sometimes the light flickered; he only changed them if they got broken. The whole building was too big for him alone. Once again he found himself in the room with the computers. The old and the newer one but this time he only sat down to one of the chairs. "How long will it take the scout to arrive at the destination point?" the voice sounded dry, still more asleep than awake. In a short break there where three dull sounds, each sound a bit higher.

"The route is going to be calculated. Please wait." He tapped with his fingers impatient on his knee. He shared that with his supervisor. Being Impatience, but for that he took the time. "Calculation finished. The scout will arrive at 6 p.m, afternoon." "Is there an alternative route?" "All other routes would take at least plus 30 minutes more supervisor. The shortest route got calculated." He let out a course under his next breath. "They could already away due of that time. And I want all three of them." Again like when he got out of bad, he pushed himself a bit from the chair and stood up. "…but it's worth a shot. Keep the route like it was. Also bring up a connection with the scout when he arrives to the destination. I don't want to miss this interesting spectacle."

 **…**

"Is that the village? I mean the right village?" wind was blowing over the deer's head, letting his ears shudder a bit and feel cold. He really wished he had his helmet with the visor with him. "Yes Cass. I'm sure, it really is this time." Circa ten Kilometres ago there was another village, and they nearly stepped in but luckily Cassia realised that by reading the map once again. And now she was rubbing that the Deer under the nose, playfully of course. "I mean, we don't want that the same mistake happens again don't we." Her mouth forming a gloating grin that silent said "epic fail". Even if most of the time he had respect for the one year younger pronghorn. Right now the deer wished he could return that gesture for something she got wrong. Instead he just let out a small annoying groan, making Cassias grin at least two centimetres wider.

The village was surprisingly big, not a small one like the green pronghorn imagined. Both of them were sure to have never seen such houses. The houses mostly where all bungalows, only a few looked like they had a second floor. Most of them where either way coloured white and with brown wood planks decorated, or there weren't even painted. Something that cached their eyes was how much garnished the wood on the balcony's was, and it looked like all of that was made with handiwork, not with machines. "That village must be really old." The deer with the tan coloured fur muttered. "Pretty archaic if you ask me I mean, look they could have used machines for that but no-"Cassia pointed to some of the houses "-they wasted it with that. Also what kind of weird style is that? Not only has that Hatzinger guy a weird name, but also a really weird way to live. And have you looked at the people here-"

Cassia was already set to point at a couple, a human man and woman, but the deer whispered fast enough. "We will make us suspicious!" "Yeah look, I mean what kind of weird clothing is that. Is that whole village stuck in time?" Cassia was right with that point. The lack of cars, the old houses and clothing, the whole lack of technology made the village look, that at some point, the village didn't evolve. They didn't have the time to think about that. "…Anyway, we should ask where that Hatzinger Guy exactly lives, I'm getting tired of this." A cheetah with red fur and black stripes crossed their way. "Excuse me?" the cheetah looked at both and according to the changing of his eyes and the mouth that opened a bit. Cassia and the Deer could only guess that he thought both looked for the cheetah at least, strange.

"Do you know where we can find a guy named Hatzinger?" "Hatzinger…" the Mobian moved his left hand right through his face, thinking. "Der Uhrmacher? Was wollts ihr denn machen, euer Gesicht reparieren lassen?" Neither Cassia nor the Deer knew what kind of strange language the cheetah spoke. But he grinned "Maybe he didn't understand us." Cassia moved more to the Man. "Where can we find a man with the Name. H-A-T-Z-I-N-G-E-R." she said louder. Instead of responding the Cheetah pointed to a house that outstood the others, it was on a hill, kind of isolated from the other houses. A little road and a cardboard was also there. "Hatzinger" he said in a simple tone. Cassia simply nodded and let out a fast thanks before she and the Egg subordinate went into the direction of the hill. Mostly they went through some small alleys before they reached the hill. It stood a bit outside of the village, hundred meters at least.

Whilst the village was mostly grey here it was a bit more colourful. When they passed the cardboard they saw a car and the word archaic was already on Cassias tongue but she dropped it. The house was a bungalow too, but instead of stone completely made out of wood except for the furnace and the windows. The colour of the wood was reddish brown. The Deer put both his hands in the pocket of the hoody. "I hope the doctor was right about Hatzinger." "Well…if he's not helping us I'm going to punch him." There was no doorbell next to the door, neither a doorknocker. Only a white sign that was nails on the wall with some weird font that said "Hazingers Uhrenladen/Hatzinger Watchmaker" under the sign was another, much smaller one with the same fond there stood "Everything that Ticks and Clicks."

Instead of knocking Cassia just pressed down the door handle. The door was unlocked and Cassia swung it open fast, there was a soft creaking noise from dry unoiled wood. The room they both entered had the size from one of those old grocer shops or drug store. It also had an wooden counter with an non electronically cash register. The room's wall was also made of wood, a bit darker than the deer's light brown fur. The floor where also made with wooden planks, but they were much darker and with polish. There were some paintings, all with different landscapes but the greatest eye catcher where the one things, that the sign told them. All different kinds of clocks and watches that stood, laid or hung nearly everywhere in that room. Grandfather clocks that stood in the near of wooden walls. Pocket watches that ticked calm in glass cabinets and some wall clocks which hung there.

They all shined in different metals, some in silver, some in cooper brown and some rare in gold. If the latter was real or not, Cassia couldn't say. The chains of the pocket watches, were made finer than fine and sparkled a bit even if there was not that much light in the room, the windows shutters where half closed. And the ticking was fine and calm, all the clocks and watches ticked in welcoming union. But clocks where not the only thing that appeared in that room. There where wind up music boxes with ballerinas or a dancing pair on the top. Toys with built in clockwork devices painted in different colours. The sign didn't lie, there was really everything that ticks and clicks. Even if the pronghorn and the deer where more into video games, they couldn't deny that this was in some way, fascinating.

"I have to say, I would've really appreciated it, if you would've knocked." The sudden appearance of the voice let both tense up, Cassia took her tonfa and the deer his little energy gun. There a doorframe stood a tall person the lacks of light let the people appear, as if it was under a cloak of shadow. Except on the face, there it seems it if there was some orange light? The shadow and darkness disappeared when the person flicked a light switch. The tension of deer and pronghorn calmed a bit down. "There is no need for Gewalt, violence here." The person, a human man spoke in a serious voice with a classy undertone, also it sounded a bit rough. "Since I believe you are not costumers, might I ask for your names?" Both deer and pronghorn looked at each other before they gave a approving nod. "Cassia" "Jesse"

"Then welcomes Cassia and Jesse. I'm Milenko Hatzinger, welcome to my house and shop. I have everything that ticks and clicks."

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 **First of all I want to say thank you to the artist/tumblr User Shinkumancer, I forgot in the last chapter to say that I used her choice of clothes she used for Cassia in one of her drawings, she allowed me to use it in the story.**

 **Also a big thank you to (ufortunatly now deactivated) tumblr user Eggmanempire948 who had the idea/headcanon , to give the deer guy the name Jesse.  
**

 **I wanted to give the deer guy a name because I think it makes it easier to write him. Maybe it dosen't look like it but I planned that since the beginning, I just wanted to surprise people with it. :P**

 **I hope that I soon come to write the next chapter.**

 **With friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


	5. Chapter 5: Cataclysm

**Hello my dear readers! I hope you all have a nice day.**

 **I planned to publish the next chapter in the end of May, but school and my four day vacation in Italy came in between of my work.**

 **My apologize, I only can hope that I can write and publish the next chapter sooner.**

 **One the bright side this chapter is a bit longer ^^**

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„About your problem-„

Hatzingers voice was a bit away; he was preparing in his kitchen something for his guests. After both told Hatzinger their name and so did Hatzinger, the watchmaker invited them into his "Ruhe Zimmer" as he called his living room. The room was similar to the rest of the house, at least what pronghorn and deer saw, was made out of wood. There was a non-lit fireplace a couch and an arm chair. The latter claimed Cassia already by herself. Cassia and Jesse explained why they came to him and the human asked, if they could give him some time to think about it. Milenko brought them a plate with three grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Entschuldigung, but it's one of the few things I can make. When I'm hungry I go out or order something, well most of the time. Anyway-"Milenko sat down next to Jesse and gave a sigh, a weak one. Jesse was looking at him. His face was long and round and his nose kind of medium sized, but also it looked long. Hatzinger looked a bit chubby. His hair was black, straight and short, except where his right eye was; there it was long, covering the right one, the left remained free to see, the color grey-bluish. He also whore a beard. From one side it looked fluffy, on the other, kind of hard and pointy, it was as long as his upper lip.

His clothing looked in Jesses taste, old-school. Milenko wore brown trousers, a black belt kept it from falling down. It was equipped with tools and some little leather bags. He also wore a dark brown colored vest with thin grey stripes; the deer also noticed that under his vest was a simple white shirt. His shoes where kind of interesting, the white-black shoes would always make a tap sound when Hatzinger was going. Like right now when he stood up from his seating place.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you." The answer came out of his mouth like it was shot out from a gun. "WHAT!"Cassias emotion went from zero to one hundred in under one second. With both tonfa in each hand she went with angry steps in Hatzingers direction.

The now nervous getting watchmaker wasn't able to interpret if her eyes where full of sadness or anger, probably the latte. "Was ich- What I mean is I'm not able to help her. I don't have the experience!" Cassia finally stopped and looked at Milenko, so did Jesse. "In the worst case scenario I might do more harm than good. I was a blue coat, my work was to….äh zusammenfügen…what was it called, äh...assemble parts, like Jesses antennas or your parts Cassia. The symptoms your sister has, that sounds more for a job of a green coat." The Pronghorn was rolling her eyes with slight annoyance. "Blue coat, green coat what kind of nonsense is that?" "Not nonsense, just a simple differentiation for our different tasks. Schau, you see. We were many assistants under the projects we did so we wore different colored lab coats. Blue, green, yellow, grey-"the human made a sigh that was barely hearable.

"I was a blue coat as I said more or less assigned to assemble the parts. The green coats where more about the coding and how they work with the, well people that got the parts. They checked that things went right at the out and inside. I'm sorry; I'm not able to help you out." Cassia sat herself next to Jesse now, the young Pronghorn just looked down at the wooden floor, wonderful, they just wasted time for nothing, and her sister would remain bedbound.

"Thank you -""Hold your words young deer. Whilst I might not be able to help you, I still have some contacts left from some former colleagues, we kind of disbanded aft- I will go and search in the basement for the data. It could take a while bis, till I found everything, so maybe you go out a bit and well look at the sunset or you can also listen to my good old radio." Hatzinger gestured to his half a meter tall device that was made in the last century. Cassia didn't have to think twice what she would choose to do. The Pronghorn took her backpack and so did the deer. "I have to phone the doctor anyway" the 13 year olds expression was sour. Both left on spot, and so did Milenko. All three of the sandwiches remained untouched.

When they walked out she let out a groan, kicking a nearby stone in the air. "Can't anything get solved in an easy way!?" "We get data from the watchmaker, that's something." "Yeah, and that means we can go back to the base and prepare everything anew!" Cassia opened her backpack and took out the phone, fast she searched for the doctor's number and pressed the button with the green handset. She waited and became impatience when no one picked up, the bit hope she had disappeared too when the one that finally picked up was the mailbox. The live and emotionless voice just stated that the caller should leave a message after the signal, and then there was silence. The young Pronghorn spoke hastily a massage and summarized everything in short words.

"-we will begin to head to the base after that Hatzinger guy gives us the information we need." She pressed her lips together and let out a groan and gave the nearby grass a kick. "I really thought that would be solved fast, now we can go back and head to what I know." Cassia looked down at the grass and stood still. Jesse felt how it grew a bit colder around him. "L-look at the positive side, we get a step forward." "Yeah, that brings us so much further." The young pronghorn scoffed. "I really hope I can help Clove soon." Cassias mouth barely moved after the last sentence. "I really hope."

 **…**

It was calm, but not for long than the quite nature of the basement got disturbed by a heavy sneeze, followed by coughs. "Really, when did I clean up this mess the last time?" What wouldn't he give for a smoke right now, but lighting one would've been insane, his house would be set in flames in seconds, considering of all the dust and stuff here. He was surrounded by old newspapers, taxes, cans, glass bottles, to make it short with rubbish. Milenko was not a hoarder, the problem was that the garbage removal wasn't doing a good job and only came in gabs of months. There were only a few personal belongings in the basement, or in the house. The dusty room was dim, nearly dark and the fact that it became already night didn't help either.

Luckily he had a light source that helped him with that problem. "Jetzt nur noch-"Milenko let out an exhausting breath when he pulled up an old suitcase that had seen better days, not only because of the dust. There where scratches and holes nearly everywhere in the black colored suitcase. The watchmaker hoped that not moths came in and destroyed his saved material. He opened it to make sure and was greeted by a, for him well-known poster.

"Beautiful as ever dear Fräulein." The golden and light rusted looking locks of the coffer made a click, signalizing that it got closed. Once again Milenko let out a heavy breath when he picked it up again. Painful sounding creaking was the response when a steps where made with his black white striped shoes, muffling the tap sound. It took him some time reaching the final step and with that the door which would lead him out of this dusty room, when he reached his destination Milenko made some short gasps trying to get as much air as possible in his lungs. "I really hope this stuff is not outdated." Milenko looked up, there was something, for a short moment he thought there was some sort of mechanical sound, only for a split second.

"Hello?" his voice still sounded a bit weak. Again there was this sound; it was like someone was clicking a light switch. It wasn't the pronghorn, neither the deer; he was sure about that, no one of them had any cybernetics that made such noise. He grew nervous, something wasn't right. With his right hand the watchmaker reached to his belt, taking a black long cylinder and pressed on a button that was screwed on it, the form was revealed to be an expanding baton. Slowly Hatzinger made some careful steps, listening to the noise and where it was coming from. The suitcase was dropped next to the unclosed door of the basement. He reached his wooden salesroom and noticed that one of his windows was open. Did he forget to close it?

Maybe the noise came from the wind and or some unoiled metal piece? With a hastily push he closed it and ended the breeze of fresh air that was coming in his house. Nothing except his clock was now to hear, like as far as he remembers it was most of the time in his workshop, only the clicking of his clocks, watches and sometimes the tone of his shoes. He went back to the suitcase and grabbed it. Was he getting paranoid because of the lack of people visiting him? Hopefully not, he took his baton and reduced it back to his original form. And then, when Milenko was sure that the noise came from the window, he heard it again. Louder and clearer, it was metallic and robotic and it came above him.

He looked up only to be greeted by two metal claws. Before he could get a clearer look to the shiny devices he felt suddenly pain, it started in the back before it speeded in his head. There was no dub that the two metal claws from that machine caused it. The pain let the watchmaker feel dizzy and before he could even set a single thought straight he found himself lying on the floor, his sight and thoughts slowly consumed by darkness and pain.

 **…**

Cassia grinned whilst listening to Jesses ranting and took a bottle of water out of her backpack and so did Jesse, her anger settled down when she and the deer went for a short walk. When looking around in the town both made a game they called "Find the most advanced thing in that archaic place." After a quarter of minutes they decided that it was an at least 10 years old TV. Walking through the town, they talked about many different topics that came in their mind. "-then in Season 4 he is suddenly replaced with a different actor and they justified it with some kind of curse." complained the deer to Cassia, he talked about some kind of science fiction series that he watches nearly every Wednesday when a new episode would come out.

"But this is not even the worst, so many things are different from the book, and I don't talk about details, I talk about serious plot relevant content." "Then why do you watch it anyway?" "…because the special effects are good." He admitted almost quite. "Heh, that's what they always say on forums when they complain about video games made to movies. I watch it only because of the actors and effects." Cassia didn't put much effort in mimicking the voices of people she never heard but it was well enough for making Jesse to chuckle a bit. "Why do we even need movies that are based of games, where is the fun in it when you can't play these guys and make them hitting chickens?" when the door to Hatzingers house/ watch shop opened both got greeted by a chilly breeze.

"Hey Hatzinger guy, we are back." No response, only the ticking of the watches broke the death silence. "Hatzinger? Milo?" "I think it was Milenko Jesse." "Right, maybe he went out by himself for a walk, or is still searching for the stuff." "Well I hope, I'm not interested to wait in this room longer with those clocks, seriously they make me uncomfortable." Both split up. Cassia went to Milenko's "Ruhe Zimmer" but he wasn't there either. "Where is he?" Did it take him really that long to search for the data? "Cassia!" Jesses voice sounded worried but also with a pit panic. The young pronghorn followed her friend's voice and froze when reaching the source of his panic. Hatzinger was lying on the floor, his right hand hold in a tight grip a suitcase. A bit of blood was running down from the humans head, not much only small lines of blood ran their way down his forehead.

The 13 year old was frozen where she stood and filled with shock. "He's only unconscious. Maybe he slipped and fell down on the floor?" "Wouldn't it be then on the back of his head? " "Maybe he slipped while closing the door?" Both heard a voice and both knew that it sounded similar, like a Badnik. When they raised their heads they saw that something was coming down, quickly both jumped back. It was really one, a Badnik. But it looked different. As if it wasn't made by . There was no color only shining metal. It had one crystal clear looking eye in the middle, had two sharp crab like claws and on the back something that looked like a container but also like the back of a spider. And so where the legs too, spider like, but only six but as sharp as the claws.

Many questions where flowing in the pronghorns and the deer's head but they had to be left unanswered, the robot made the sound of an aggressive screech and moved fast in their direction, both claws looking as if they were ready attack them. They grabbed their weapons and it was Jesse who first shot at the robot but missed him, the small but strong laser shot only left a burning mark on the floor. The device didn't bother with that and moved faster forward, it jumped and tried to reach Cassia, but was only greeted by two tonfa who hit it in the face and then another strike to the claws. Her attack was made hastily and improvised, but it did quit the damage. The machine fell on its back, but it didn't take a second to get back on its legs. The eye was a bit cracked and one of the claws looked crooked. "Why is it attacking us, are its circuits burned?!"

"Do I look like a robot expert?" Instead of moving to them by his six spice shaped legs the robot revealed two medium metal wings. The buzzing was loud and sounded heavy, like one of those big bugs Cassia saw on TV. It landed right to her feet, the not damaged claw attempted to hit her boot, in which it succeeded but the claw got stuck in it. The hit Cassia tried to land on the robot got blocked by the damaged claw, it parried against the tonfa. Being distracted and busy with defending itself, Jesse took the chance and shot two times on the legs of the robot. It looked a bit as if the Badnik was startled; finally releasing his claw from Cassias boot is stumbled backwards. It stood there, recalibrating his eyes and limps that weren't too damaged, the last two legs didn't operate anymore and one only slowly but the robot was even with difficulties moving.

"Can't that thing already be scrap metal?!" Cassia made a small and quick jump to avoid one of the mechanical devices attacks. The pronghorn shuddered, at first she thought the robot might have hit her but when she turned around she was greeted by one of Milenkos big grandfather's clocks. Seeing the great clock and that the robot was also in the near of it, Cassia had a plan. "Distract the bot for me, I have a plan!" Jesse looked only for a split second at Cassia, giving her a nod. He didn't know what Cassia prepared, but he trusted her in whatever her idea foresaw. "Hey!" the shouting sounded in the deers head louder than it was really, but it drew the Bots attention. Slowly the Badnik was moving in Jesse's direction. "Back out." was the only thing Cassia said in a strained voice. Each step he made backwards, the Badnik made a faster one, coming closer and closer to the deer.

"STEP LEFT!" After the deer did what he was told in a hastily manner, he heard an exhausting sounding wooden creak. The damaged robot didn't notice what was coming for it, and when it did, too late. The bot was greeted by the big with many woodcuts decorated right on it falling grandfathers clock. The crash was loud. Mixed with braking glass and deforming metal, the clock made one final muffled tick before going silent. The Badniks eye went dull, and didn't move. They looked for a short time at it, to make sure it really was lifeless. "Are you ok?" "Yeah, it just cut in my booth, and you?" "I'm fine." For a short moment there was silence before they turned around to look a Hatzinger.

Both went back to the Watchmaker who lay still on the ground. "Why did it attack us? Why was it even here?" "I don't know, but what I know is that we probably should help Hatzinger." Cassia took him on his right, Jesse on his left arm and tried to drag him to his living room. Everything was silent. Cassia and Jesse were deep in their thoughts, both quite similar. "Without the suitcase this would be way easier." Cassia grunted Jesse gave an approving nod. A quick sound interrupted them, different than the one made by the robot, it sounded like a long "blink". The deer looked down and saw a metallic orb that blinked, and there was another one of them, and another, at least ten of those where in the corridor.

The "blink" sound went on faster. When looking down at the crushed robot Cassia noticed that in fact he eye of the scrapped robot blinked too. Not the pronghorn or the deer had to say something, they had a feeling what these little blinking orbs where. As fast as they could they dragged Milenko to the salesroom, only to notice that there were also, even more of those orbs, blinking in a faster manner than before. They didn't look back; they just tried to run with Milenko. Some of the orbs where in the middle of their way, Jesse kicked as far as possible away to clear the direction they were heading, Cassia joined him. Before they reached the door the blinking stopped, only for a second, then explosions where to hear, small in gabs of some microseconds they exploded, fortunately only at the right or left side of the room, far enough not to reach them. They only felt the heat that came from the bombs. Explosive flames got released and began in occupying the wooden walls like a celebratory meal. Paintings, the windows and of course the clocks, nothing was save from them. The flames where celebrating their victory over the house they just won, becoming their victim. Both, deer and pronghorn had luck not to breath in any smoke when they went out of house as fast as they could, in a reflex Cassia closed the door, smashing it in the doorframe.

Carrying Milenko they went down the little hill going in the direction of the cardboard they saw when they went up to the now more and more lost house. Next to the black car they sat Milenko down. Cassia said nothing, with her eyes stiff and wide, she just pushed on the car handle, and it went open, she wasn't surprised, maybe she would have, but there was no place for that in her head right now. She sat down at the dark red brownish leather passenger seat resting her face next to the window, watching at the burning house. First there was fear in her mind, how could this happen? What would the Watchmaker say? He would give them the fault wouldn't he? But there was also relive, they made it out AND saved Milenko! Speaking of the watchmaker, Jesse was able to shove the human on the driver's seat before the deer placed himdelf in the backseats. They were able to destroy the bot, on the other side maybe if they wouldn't have then the house would not burning to the ground. Where was the firewatch? The village would have one wouldn't they, and it wasn't that big so, why weren't they here already? Last but not least there was anger, anger because why? Why did that robot attack them and also Milenko? Did he attack it first? But then why did it attack it she and her friend? Did the Eggman send it to them, defenetly, who else?

"WHAT THE HEY IS GOING ON!? Cassia let out a frustrated groan. "I don't know what to do!" Jesse didn't say anything; instead he looked at Milenko whose head hanged in the direction of the floor.

Time passed before Cassia released a little, barely hearable sigh. She closed her eyes, and opened them slowly, breathed in and out. "Can you call the Doc for me?"

Searching for a bit in her backpack she then tossed the mobile phone in Jesse's direction, hitting the window before it fell down to the seat next to the deer. He typed in the numbers, waiting before saying one word, "Mailbox", the pronghorn answered with an annoyed tone, a weakly sounding groan let forget her mood. Milenko Hatzinger had both of his hands placed on his head looking perplex around. "Wo bin ich? Wie, was? W-"the tired looking uncovered eye snapped fully awake open, when he saw the burning remains of his once beloved home.

"*MeineGütemeineGütemeineGütemeineGütemeineGütemeineGütemeineGüte." He repeated this words staring at the glowing fire. Some of he repeating words got swallowed because of how fast they came out of him. He stopped and his stare eye began in looking at Jesse, then at Cassia.

The young pronghorn let out a short and nervous laugh and also began automatically in grinning embarrassed. "Well your house, it's a long sto-" Milenko stretched his right arm out and made a stop hand sign. His left one going was pulling on the beard.

"My head is spinning, let me get it straight. Some, mechanical thing attacked me. I went out for some time and now I wake up, and see a big fire that was once my house. You brought me out of the house, so you didn't send that robot…**es sei denn das ist ein Versuch mir Stockholm-Syndrom zu geben JEDENFALLS, ANYWAY! How, is this possible? "he pointed to his house. „The bot placed bombs all over your house and when we squashed it with one of your clocks it activated the bombs. It wasn't us, I swear!"

Milenko remained silent, only his breath was to hear before he exhaled. "I believe you. I'm out of my house, so you saved me, from both, the machine and the Feu-fire." He fumbled with his right hand on his belt and took out a key, soon it was plugged in next to the stirring wheel and the start of an old car motor was to hear.

"But we can't stay hier, it's too dangerous, someone is chasing you and now I'm involved too. Gib-give me the phone, I should give your doctor a call." with that the watchmaker pressed on the gas pedal.

* * *

 **Well, well, well looks like Milenko joined the party too! More or less he didn't had another choice :P. Let's see how this will continue.**

 **Also if you are interested, this is what Milenko says in German:**

 ***"Meine Güte" can be translated in "Oh my!"**

 ****"except this is an attempt to give me stockhom syndrom"**

 **Now for the Reviews ^^**

 **DragoonSensei: I'm glad you are interested and thank you for reading my fanfiction ^^**

 **Well a watchmaker might look like as if he couldn't help in such a deed, but well who knows what still might come to our group ;-.)**

 **Peach'sMinions: Yeah it really is that it came to this incident, but I'm glad that you want to continue in reading it ^^**

 **If you mean when that happened with that Cloves cybernetics went into lockdown, that didn't happened. In the comics Eggman uses the "fails safes" to blackmail his Egg Bosses so they help him conquer a base back from the Witchcarters. That story begins in SU #83.**

 **And with that I want to say goodbye, until the next chapter comes of course.**

 **With friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


	6. Chapter 6: Hit the Road

**Hello my dear readers!**

 **Due of having my finals that I had from last year until the beginning of my summer holidays I was unable to continue this story.**

 **I'm deeply sorry for this and can understand if by now you're annoyed by my constant apologizing.**

 **At least, as a small redemption I want to give you dear readers an quite longer chapter that I hope you can enjoy.**

 **We'll see each other again at the end of the story :-)**

* * *

„It seems they are...more capable in defending themselves than I first expected. "Re-watching repeatedly the footage his failed scout robot delivered him, brought him to such a conclusion. Somehow the room felt colder than normally, was it because this was proof that his Scout Units needed some more Improvements? At least he was sure now that the self-destruction mode worked just fine. There was always the possibility to send more of his creations but that would lead to nowhere. Right now he couldn't say exactly to which place and or direction they were heading, he unfortunately overestimated those two and so headed for other tasks that had to be accomplished and now he had to pay the price for his foolishness.

The normally neutral looking expression changed to be a bit disgruntled, followed by a medium heavy hit on the older ones of the computers, this room was full of them, older or newer devices and of course monitors, he had to keep his eyes on all of them, the Egg-Bosses and the bases, that was his job, his top-secret task, an order from the doctor himself.

He once again twisted the metal button that was covered in dark brown plastic; a short-exhausted breath got released and he stood up from his dusty seating. Going around in circles, touching the plain metal walls. For now it was decided that it wouldn't make much sense to dwell in this room with those sometimes more sometimes less outdate machines any longer, perhaps later he would find out where they were heading, but now, it was just a waste of time.

„The request for obtaining subject, Egg Boss of Northamer, Clove, Pronghorn got, denied. "

It was not surprising at all, why did he even make that inquiry if the response was clearly expected? The response didn't make him in any way more furious or angrier than his thoughts already where, he wasn't Eggman after all. It wouldn't be a big setback for his plans, his work and master plan.

Yes, his work, his own little experiment, no one was aware of, sometimes the word magnum opus whirred in his mind, but the title was too early for now. „A shame, but it won't change much of my work, after all, there are, right now three other candidates I have in my mind. And perhaps, they're more capable for what I seek to optain."

There was always some work to do, his newer movements brought him closer to the workshop. Testing and working on his newest prototypes and solving the few issues they still had. Slowly he touched his face, getting a chilly feeling due of the metal on the limps, he tried to rub out the rest of the sleep that slowly began to creep trough his body. The thought of going to the coffee machine for a cup became as strong as the brew he needed any second now. „Computer, prepare some new bots, perhaps the "pack" and "limber" prototypes."

He imagined that his newest and own creations would come later in handy for a 'field test' the thought alone filled him with something, even he allowed himself to call joy and a bit of excitement too.

Going down deeper and deeper the hallway, he could hear behind himself an off and static „Understood„ from his computer, the only 'companion' if you could call it like that, he had here in the hub. For a moment he stood still, suddenly, didn't move a centimetre or inch to the goal he intended, just standing silently in the with weak white neon light illuminated hallway. A slight smile was formed by his lips, which was unusual, but because of the new thought that overcame his always working mind. "After all, there are other things to make their lives, difficult."

 **…**

White, everything in this room was white and sterile. Not surprising for a room that got furnished specific for medical staff. Despite Cassias condition (which allowed them to have more staff than other bases), they were still, clearly, understaffed. This was not surprising too since believed that every injured part could be easily being treated with replacing the injured or sick limp with a mechanical replacement. The racoon doctor and for now temporary supervisor of the Northamer Egg-Base could feel her body heath rising and allowed it to be shook for a few seconds, it was exactly these metal parts that brought them into this complicated situation. However, being angry and sour would not help anyone right now, especially not in the presence of their immobile Egg-Boss. The female pronghorn just laid there in the hospital bed, the eyes wide open, her mouth cramped, there rest of her body looked being in pain too. It was a horrible condition. Maybe it was just her imagination, her own worry, the stress or lack of sleep, but she could have sworn to see in the paralysed face anxiety and worry.

For a moment the doctor hold her breath, brushing nervous her grey-white soft, brushy tail before letting out the air bland.

"Do not worry Lady Clove, she is strong" despite the words being outspoken only in her mind, they sounded more unsure than confident.

Her former colleague unfortunately didn't turn out to be himself helpful, but Cassia told her on the mobile phone that he had some information about someone else. The pronghorn said something about being them a green coat. Biting on her lip with some pressure she had to admit that it was partly her fault, she should have known that Hatzinger would not have had the knowledge they would need for the Fails Safes, some years ago no one would have trusted him with such top-secret information, especially since he was from a rather infamous country back then.

The racoon could not help herself and let out a slight frustrated sigh, a capybara nurse looked at the doctor for a short time with a hint of worry before continuing feeding Clove with soup, which was not an easy task. At first, they had no plan how to give the Egg-Boss nutrients, and when they figured a way out, it wasn't a really "nice looking" way.

The racoon shook her head, she could not allow it to let herself down, at least she had to pretend it for now, the whole situation brought tension all over the base, some soldiers feared that now rebels would have an easy way to attack and could take over the base, others got scared about Lady Cloves state, thinking that any second they could be the next victims of this effect, to say the moral was currently not high was clearly an exaggeration, it was obviously down in the dumps.

More distressed than intended she put her left hand in one of the pockets of her coat, fishing out another mobile phone she owned, even older than the one she gave Cassia, at least that made sure Eggman wasn't listening to them, hopefully. She pressed one of the buttons and to her surprise; it was displayed on the screen that there was one new massage spoken in the mailbox.

Looking at the screen the racoon noticed how the expression on her own expression lifted a bit up. Even if the doctor was aware that it wouldn't help much with the Egg-Boss physical condition, maybe it would make the older one of the pronghorns feel better, if she heard the voice of her sister again."

"Maybe we shall hear what your sister has to say Lady Clove."

"You have one new message from-"

The doctor automatically rolled her eyes; she didn't like that old thing of a phone and didn't miss the slow talking voice at all.

After turning the speaker on she laid it to a white metal bedside cabinet, but the awaited voice of Cassia, or Jesse didn't appear.

Instead it sounded like someone was fumbling with it around and there where muffled not quite understandable voices.

Suddenly there was a louder expression; the doctor could've sworn it was a groan of frustration before the sound became clearer.

"So, I'm holding it right now do I?"

"For the last time yes!"

"Just don't drop it, or cover the Microphone again!"

"Ok, I understand that, also, so...when do I speak in it?"

"NOW!" The words outspoken were annoyed followed by two simultaneously tired groans

"T-To my defence, I don't use such devices often. "

Even after so many years ago, the racoon doctor recognised Hatzingers voice, despite the quality of the speakers and or the recorded massage not the best.

"Anyway, due of uhm, wie sage ich die- ah recent and unexpected events I've decided to take those two semi-annoying teenagers in temporary…Obhut, custody yeah that's the word I'm sea- HE!"

"Who do you call annoying here, give me back my phone!"

There was a short rustling tone before it went calm again, it sounded as if they would drive with a car, or by the bus, the doctor couldn't tell.

"Anyway, the snotty lame informant here got knocked out, it was some kind, looked like a Badnik, and it exploded, yeah, and also burnt down Hierzers home a-"

"L- Cassia I eh don't think we have to tell all the…details here…"

"What are you talking about? I'm just telling the outline."

"No I mean-"

"Danke, the snotty lame informant reclaims that for a while now ja? Due of these circumstances I decided to bring them to their new Ziel eh destination and AHHH-"

For a moment there was a clear screeching sound, then a short rumble.

"Chaos don't talk and dri-"

"We're fine don't worry will call soon bye!"

Then nothing, with eyes wide open the racoon in a white coat stared at Clove.

"I-Im confident that they will be fine my Lady"

There was, for now at least nothing she could do, there place was now unknown, something attacked them, and sending soldiers was too risky, who said that they were still in neutral territory or if the perpetrator wasn't in the base?

Words or motions were not necessary, the doctor knew, Clove was judging her together with the decision she made.

 **…**

Smoke, old, cold smelling smoke

The more Cassia sat in the co-driver's seat, the more she inhaled the stench, and it annoyed her, the whole car had the odour of charcoal, or rather, they had it on them.

Taking another breath, the young pronghorn let out a grunt before she looked out of the window, they left the village behind some time ago and after that one weird phone call that brought them a near death experience in crashing what Milenko called a "Litfaßsäule" the whole car was silent. There were only trees and a rocky road, which Cassia was sure was actually a hiking path due of the poor condition it had.

Despite the black car looking in both hers and Jesses taste archaic it was for its appearance kind of fast, something that surprised both, due of the speed, the trees looked as if they were merged together.

"I still think we should've called the firefighters ."

"And I think you shouldn't drive anyway, especially with your hair style."

The driver looked for a split second at Cassia, before giving again all his attention to the road.

"I can see through my hair style with my covered eye very fine thank you very much. "

"Because crashing in that concrete pillar wa- "

"You can say "you" to me Jesse, calling the Fire..wehr wouldn't have been much of use. In the time they had been there, well, let's say my house would be so or so only a pile of smoking ash."

The human took a deep breath and hold it before he exhaled the air with a frustrated sound, his face looking a bit sad.

"Well, everyone has to take their bitter pill."

"Hm, bitter pill…chaos! I nearly forgot, Cas-"

Suddenly the deer was shoving one of his hands in the dark grey backpack; the sleeve of his green hoodie got pulled up a bit when he reached for something.

"-the Doc said you have to take one pill of each package every day."

Jesse bended forwards, dropping the three packages of the for Cassia well known medicine right into her lap.

Looking down at her inevitable fate the attention was soon shifted to Jesse, then to Milenko.

"I don't think we can come up here with a solution everyone likes?"

Neither human nor deer answered her plea, Milenko was fully concentrated on the street whilst her deer friend occupied both back seats by trying to take a nap, or at least he pretended to do so to avoid her stare, which was obvious.

Muttering a fast "traitors" Cassia decided that it was no use to fight the imperative. Taking out one pill from each packet she also grabbed for a mineral water bottle in the backpack, hoping the bitter and sour taste would leave fast.

It stung, rather strong, not only her tongue but her whole body, whatever the stuff did to her it also made her always a bit sleepy and the pronghorns vision slightly blurry.

The designated driver of the black car allowed himself to clear his throat before raising his voice.

"So are there any more questions about why and wieso bec-"

"Yeah-" half awake and pulling together Cassia was able to force the words she wanted to say out of her body.

"-where are we driving?"

The next action was truly unforeseen from all involved parties.

A loud screech of wheels rubbing against stone and earth plus followed by an after movement of the car due of the abrupt halt.

It was thanks to the seatbelt that neither Cassia nor the other passengers happened something serious.

"Hey what gives?!" Jesse who laid on the back-seats rolled rather against his will on the floor of the car, rubbing his nose he gave Hatzinger an annoyed, but rather fretted look.

"That is actually...a good question." the fingers of the watchmaker cramped around the steering wheel, slowly his head shifted to his co-driver who with big static eyes looked at the street and then at him, all three sat now in silence.

"Handschufach."

"The what?"

"Ah...the glovebox, there's a map in there."

"Oh."

The drawer, made of pretty cheap taupe-brown coloured plastic was filled with nearly anything, some small gears, tissues, cough candies, the drivers and car license and two small records having each the size of a CD and of course the map.

Looking at the date of it Cassia wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry, the thing was already a bit more than a decade old, speaking of old, the question, who, in times of techno logic advance uses a map any more sprung in her head immediately.

Cassia and Jesse looked at each other, confused and amused at the same time, Milenko still focused on the street slowly brought the car on hold, then without hesitate opened the door and stepped out quickly followed by Cassia, whilst her companion closed the door she decided to let it open, it wouldn't hurt if some fresh air blew in the car no wouldn't it?

Tighten her pink t-shirt and rubbing her hands on the black trousers she wore she looked at her deer friend who managed to climb at the back seats and laid down again, first inspecting his gun aka peashooter before being noticed.

"Hmm-" Both members of the Egg-Army looked at the human who took out of his many belt pockets a simple red marker.

"-Jesse would you please bring me my suitcase?"

Without hesitation the tan coloured deer left his gun on the seat and took the called battered object, that in his eyes was heavy. With a groan he gave it to Milenko, who immediate laid it on the engine cover and opened it with two simple clicks on the suitcases buttons. Due of the sway the watchmaker got nearly hit by the upper side of his bag. Taking a look inside Jesse and Cassia got greeted by a poster, it was made in a vintage style, displaying a singing Mobian who stood next to a microphone where music notes came out. One hand hold it whilst the other reached for the glittering drawn stars. How they exactly looked like could neither Jesse nor Cassia tell, there figure was only a dark silhouette. Except for the dress they wore, it was a short green dancing dress with white stripes. On both shoulder holders there were also on each two red roses attached. Background was dark bluish, except for the yellow whitish stars and a full moon and of course the stage the genet stood on. Under the singing figure stood a text in bright lilac tone.

" **Give the moonshine lounge a visit, enchant yourself by Zaynah the Genets voice!** "

"And how exactly is a poster going to help Lady Clove?" without noticing the deers eyes more and more became slits.

"She's the green coat I was talking about earlier."

"She?! But she's a singer in some shady lounge? How is _that_ going to help _us_?"

"Before my dear Zay became a singer she was responsible for the inner work of the cybernetics. Although she always had a soft spot for humming some tunes here and there, if I remember right she sang once when we reached that mayor breakthrough on the work of the robot-"

"Boooring, where's that moonshine bar?"

"If I remember correctly it should be-"

Looking over the map his index finger circled around the it, with his right hand he made a small dot on some place, looking over it Cassia noticed that it must be the place of their current stay.

Milenkos finger moved again, but instead of some place close to the red dot the finger went down to a small framed part in the left corner of the map where there was a small illustration of Mobius, showing all the continents, between the continent Eurish and Efrica the finger ended its journey and hold still.

"-there"

For a minor, unimportant split-second it was calm, but as fast as it began, it soon was over.

"What?! No! You're kidding"

"No chance!"

The duo of pronghorn and deer nearly screamed their disapproval simultaneously, that couldn't be true, under no circumstances was this the reality.

Hatzinger, who closed his eyes due of how loud their voices suddenly became, tapping with the red marker on the front window, he gritted his teeth.

"I'm sorry, it's the only solution I have, of course, this is up to you, if you want I can drive you back to your Base-"

For a short moment no one said anything. it appeared as if Cassia was ready to smash one of her tonfa directly into the cars engine cover altogether with the map, but the strong grip on her weapon began to loose. In that moment the deer tried to raise his voice, he wanted to speak out his mind, how it probably would be better to go back, but before he could have said anything Cassia interrupted his further move.

"No. Keep moving." the pronghorns head was lowered, her eyes only staring at the map.

"A-are you sure Cass, I me-"

"Yes I am! Just, lets drive already."

"Natürlich, of course, but I should remark-"

He didn't say it out loud but Jesse knew that Cassia got stressed because of their new revelation, but he couldn't understand why she didn't want to turn back to their station, was it due of the fear that whoever send that Badnick like machine could wait for them there? If Hatzinger told the truth, then the way he showed was plausible, at least the deer thought when he made a quick gimps at the map because now the human stood between him and Cassia, covering it. Still, it felt fishy, for a second the thought that maybe Milenko was trying to manipulate his friend was in mind, but that wasn't possible. The human was a simple, friendly but somehow naive looking watchmaker who barely understood modern technology, that was at least what Jesse thought of him, there was something about this man of gears and clockwork, but he couldn't tell whenever it was just Hatzingers nature, or if he, the human had an ill meaning against them which he tried to cover up.

"Jesse. Hey Jesse!"

"Yes what?"

"I said are you coming or what? You kinda zoomed out."

Milenko sat again in his drivers seat and Cassia on the other side sat, no laid on the co-drivers seat having adjusted the backrest to her liking. Only now the deer noticed that she looked exhausted, probably caused by the medicine she took a while ago, her cybernetic yellow eyes appeared already half closed.

"Phew all of that talking while driving made me thirsty" using the map as a makeshift fan it was clear that having a car without a proper air conditioner wouldn't be an option ever again.

Fumbling behind his seat he finally got a hold of one of the grey coloured handles, picking it up and placing it on his knees, for a moment Jesse thought why the clock worker didn't just took the one of Cassia, but It became clear that, since she fell only seconds ago to sleep and clenched on the backpack Milenko didn't dare to wake her up.

The deers eyes shifted again to his friend, he was worried, not only about Cassia, about everything, this whole situation was a mess and worst of all it wasn't obvious, it just happened from one minute to another, Lady Clove collapsing, their involuntary extended journey, Hatzingers house and workshop being set ablaze, despite his, in the eyes of the deer suspicious acting, he felt ins-

"Hmm, was haben wir denn hier?"

Having the stirring wheel only in one hand the designated driver looked more on the small carton which he slightly shook, giving the sound of the rattling it was apparently neither an object smaller than the box nor very light.

Seeing Milenko handling the box in such a careless manner brought back Jesses attention, the eyes snapped open and his teeth gritted in fear that something might happen to the box and its content that was hold within. in the speed the wink of an eye the Egg-Solder took the box for himself.

"Careful with that!" like a precious ring he hold the box tight to himself, it was only now that the human noticed the lack of an item in his hand.

"Huh? What's in there?"

"It's, it's…it's private got it? And watch the street!"

"If you say so Hirsch."

"What was that last word?"

"Oh I don't know, it's private."

Despite his face not moving an inch Jesse knew that Hatzinger was smug, his intuition told him, that and the driving mirror on the that was attached on the car ceiling mirroring the mens face.

Letting out a sigh the mobian rubbed his eyes out, he already regretted that, maybe he should've stayed In the base, but then Cassia would've went on her own and if then something would happen, he couldn't forgive himself for that for sure.

"Say, what's the destination actually?

"Hmm I recall having said it some minutes ago."

"Right, maybe you could repeat that again if you don't mind."

"Hmm"

Letting out a groan the deer already could guess more than once what he had to say.

"Please?"

With the lips formed to a slit he inhaled a bit of air, before letting it out again.

"Empire City."

"E...Empire City? But that's at least half a day away and it's already getting dark. You would drive the whole night?!"

"I know, that's why I decided to make a stop at a local monastery that's not even one hour away from here. If that's ok?"

Thinking trough it he simply nodded, he was never at a monastery, thinking about it, it was until now that Jesse realized he had never seen a monk, only saw them in one of the fantasy films he watched.

"Do you think the monks will just let us in like that?"

"Oh I think they wouldn't mind even if still the Clerics of Chaos inhabited it, but it got taken over by Gaias Pagans after the rest left due of...uhm, how do you call it if you..like...uhm how do I explain this..."

Releasing one of his hands again from the stirring wheel Hatzinger scratched his beard while thinking, it only lasted a few seconds before he continued to drive with both again.

"-like there is a factory but you can't start production because you have to few employees."

"Shortage of manpower?"

"Exactly! Wunderbar. Because of shortage of monk-power the rest of the clerics left and now the followers of Gaia are inhabiting the monastery. You know who the pagans are don't you?"

Jesse could only shook his head in a simple manner, whilst he knew the Clerics of Chaos back then when he still lived in a rater rural area he never heard from those other guys.

Milenko smiled, and the deer could only guess what he brought on himself now.

"Since we're still driving for some time let me explain a bit about them ja? Whilst I don't know everything I think I remember the outlines. It all started in the year 126 before-"

 **...**

Cassia opened her eyes but once she what was on it got her full attention.

Everything was different instead of the car, the road, Jesse and Milenko there was black, darkness, a void, everything she saw only seconds ago was gone and she just stood there, directly in the cold darkness, but it wasn't cold, she couldn't say how she really felt, except, worried.

„Jesse?"

Taking a step it felt like as if she was in water, every move went slower than intended, the voice of herself sounded a bit blurred, same applied to her sight, if not all of her senses.

„Milenko?"

No answer, nothing, there was only her breath and nothing else she felt, there was no wind, no car engine, not even the pulse of her own hearths beating was there.

The more she was in this weird realm, the more she became worried.

„Anyone?!"

Needless to say, Cassia had to accept that she was about to freak out.

„Is this a joke, did you put me under a blanket, Jesse, this isn't funny, seriously!"

Again, no one was there to answer the pronghorn, Cassia was on her own, whenever she liked it, or not.

„Clove?"

She knew that her older sister wasn't reachable, couldn't be there, but the wish that her older sister was there to help was strong, to tell her that everything would be fine as long as they are together, to comfort her and with every second sliding it grew stronger.

The young pronghorns breathing became heavier, as if not only air was around her, there was also a certain smell she couldn't point out right.

Wherever she was, waiting was apparently the only option, hoping that anyone she knew would come and tell her if this was some kind of joke. Of course there where the thoughts of that she might have dozen off and this was a dream, but something was unusual, a dream like this? It was the first time for her to witness something like that.

There was this dream where she and Clove would go on an adventure seeking to retrieve a great treasure in a jungle, becoming famous adventures and saving some archaeologist during it, making them both additional heroes and popular too.

Being in one of her video games, playing the protagonist was also something that happened occasionally in her dreams, it was fun to be the hero who saved someone or defeated the prime evil who was behind everything.

Of course she also had one of those where she was suddenly falling down from a mountain, down into a deep blue ocean, only to wake up when she was about to hit the water.

And then, then there was this dream she rarely had, of something from the past, the pronghorn would look into a mirror, seeing herself, but also not herself. She would see someone that could've been her, a someone without cybernetics, needless to say she was grateful for them and the action her sister took, but sometimes, yes, sometimes it was there.

Her thoughts about that meant nothing any more once she saw a weak, orange glimmer far away, sparking hope in the hearth of the pronghorn.

„Hello? Who's there?"

Despite the exhausting walk, she was sure to be able to move forward, with each step she took, it felt more and more as if it was getting warmer, like as if she was in an old steam train.

The more she moved to the source of the glimmer, the more it got clear for Cassia that it was a small orange flame. Nothing else, only this flame, it appearance was kind of, unusual. It was clearly a flame but the appearance was stiff, didn't move an inch, as if it was more like a flame shaped lightbulb.

Reaching her goal the young pronghorn tried slowly but steady to feel the warmth of the flame, to move closer with one of her hands, maybe even touch it.

In a sudden, blinding flash the flame went bigger, at least three feet higher than the pronghorn next to it, who stared in surprise, but more in shock, the room where she was in felt now hot, dangerously hot as if she got cooked alive in here. The unusual smell, now it was clear, it was smoke that spread everywhere. Needless to say, the girl was in panic trying to run away from it, as fast as she could.

„Toc...toc...toc"

Turning to the left she noticed immediately the silhouette, not as big as the flame but at least taller than her, she couldn't say who it was, what it was, but on thing was clear, it held something in one open hand. The limb suddenly moved the hand a bit, letting something fall out, but instead of hitting the pitch black ground, it was saved from its demised by a small chain, revealing the device to be actually a pocket watch, at least that's what she imagined, how it moved from left to right and apparently was the source of the ticking and clicking that suddenly filled wherever the young pronghorn was.

The more she looked at it, the being with the pocket watch, the more it was not a simple gesture, it became more and more clearly that the ticking was not a simple sound, more an action, as if it was mocking her, together with the movement of the silhouette, who's shoulder went up and down, as if it was laughing at her, no as if it was laughing ABOUT her.

„Yeah, yeah just laugh about me you JERK! Show yourself!"

They only continued their mute mocking.

Nothing tried to force her to go slower, despite moving closer to the being with the watch, it was still unrecognisable who or what it was

„Who are you?! Tell me and stop laughing?!"

As if her wish got granted, the ticking stopped, the clock got taken by the beings hands and closed. Despite no face, for some reason Cassia felt as if it had a mischievous smile on the non existing lips-

„You mission-"

Surprised by the sudden voice she shrieked up, it was deep, like all out of place, as if it didn't belong to the silhouette, but it had something from herself, as if the voice from her got taken away and used, abused by the being, it sounded distorted and as if not one but at least three people spoke them out at the same time.

„-is tainted in failure. You' ll fail, only sadness and despair is what you get. Turn around, give up or die alone."

It mocked her once again.

„You're meant to fail Cassia, I make sure of that, a promise I'm willed to make."

It mocked her, it taunted and made fun of her in this dark room and once it finished its sentence it howled out a deep laugh that sounded more like a deep croaking toad. This jerk face thought it could make fun of her, whoever they where, they had it wrong. With a scream of anger the pronghorn ran to the being to punch it in the face, or if not reachable in the chest or at least the shin. But instead of greeted with defence or even something solid, there was only orange, heath and flames.

What was first the silhouette got consumed by a spiral of flames, more and more they went around it, before it was all consumed, and began to spread over to the pronghorn.

There was no pain or injury, but it scared the living out of Cassia, she felt as if she went to hell in a handbasket. The scream she let out was both mixed with surprise, but mostly sheer horror. She wished, her sister would be there, to help her, to aid her or even to save her.

The fames grew bigger, more violent, they formed a flaming ring, then a ball, and suddenly there was a head, the more she looked at the head made of burning orange and red, the more it looked like a lion.

A mighty, scary burning mane, but the face, the face looked too different to be the king of the savanna yes, like another being, more like a sheep made out of flames that stared at her.

The room suddenly erupted, her own scream drowned, by a bigger, louder response, she couldn't hear anything any more, neither her voice nor her thoughts.

And then, the head was coming for her, this big head of a sheep was whilst it screamed, or rather bleated flew in her direction, as if Cassia was going to be consumed by the flames of the burning sheep. It was about to hit her, with such a speed she couldn't outran it at all. The clash was about to happen and she would burn. The only thing she was could to cover her eyes whilst she screamed in fear.

 **...**

The scream Cassia let out was short lived, but didn't loose any of its power because of that. Whilst Jesse already slept like a log, Milenko got the double charge of surprise and shock, fortunately for all occupants his right hand was steady fixed on the stirring wheel, but to his dismay the object he held in one of his hands got squashed and torn. Letting out a slight frustrated noise of tiredness he threw it out of the half open car window next to the drivers seat.

It was only now that the Pronghorn noticed the smell of smoke, but different, it wasn't cold and also had a different taste, then it hit her.

„You smoke in here?!"the tone she spoke out those words sounded in-between annoyed and surprised.

Hastily the human looked around, once at her, then at the sleeping Jesse and at the end into the driving mirror.

„N-Nur wenn ich-"

Cassia wasn't sure if she should be worried or amused how she apparently brought Milenko out of tact.

„Only if I'm stressed, or moody! But I think due of recent events I'm allowed to calm myself down!"

The sudden and unusual change of Hatzingers voice would've made Cassia jumped in surprise if she wasn't wearing the safety belt. Her eyes were fixed and looked with a tone of worry at the driver who noticed how uneasy his companion felt. Gulping down what felt like a dry dumpling filled with pepper and chilly powder, Milenko let out some air trough his nose.

„I'm sorry, It's just, my house, my clocks, my whole existence, all turned up into smoke, literally, and the worst of all, it's not as if it's the first time."

The clockmakers appearance changed again to his tired, exhausted style, with the only difference that he now looked more frustrated than before. For a brief time he looked out of the cars window before he pulled the safety break and turned the key around, shutting down the motor in the process.

Closing his eyes and letting out another breath Milenko opened the door with a sway

„We're there."

Having said those last two words he stepped out speechless, leaving Cassia and Jesse behind, the latter waking up from the sudden stop of the car.

„That's the monastery? It looks kinda down to me."

„A bit mysterious."

„Rather creepy and ramshackle "

They approached the stone wall, which they where only able to see because it got illuminated by green and bright blue light. To both surprise it wasn't spend by electricity or candles, rather white mushrooms who had the size of a palm. The cobble stone itself, that just a few metres appeared to be green by itself was actually covered rich in moss

„It reminds me of that Point n Click game."

Cassias voice was nearly the only thing audible, somewhere must've been a pond because no too far away some frogs croaked, and from the grass resonated the chirps of crickets. The sky was pitch black and no star was to be seen only the half half-moon shined.

„Which one?"it was merely a whisper Jesse let out.

„You know, that one, with the demons where you go further down into that monastery to solve the decade old mystery."

„Tainted Sacrality XVI?"

„Exactly! It sucks that they discontinued it."

„Yeah. But may-"

Whatever the deer wanted to say, his voice together with the quaint noises got swallowed by loud bangs that nearly scared them to death.

Looking for the source of the sudden loud sound they found Milenko, not two hundreds meter away from them hitting on a wooden gate, that of course was closed, after his knocking he also shouted something out loud, then remained calm before apparently talking to the gate before nearly magic like it opened. Turning around he saw his both companions on spot and signalized them with one of his arms to approach him.

Looking at each other both Mobians decided to head to him without questioning his whereabouts.

„The good news is they have allowed us shelter for this night, they even said we could stay longer if we want."

„Aaand the bad news are?"

„Obviously this is not a four star hotel...not even a motel, which means we only have the minimum here ergo, no chance in taking a shower or a bathtub being available. "

„What?! Then how are those peasants are getting clean?"

„Well they really don't…..ah achso well they bath in the lake behind the trees."pointing somewhere at the from darkness nearly non visible threes, Cassia knew now clearly the source of the croaking.

„I think, we can wait until Empire City."

Each of her companions gave her quickly a nod of approval.

„And secondly, if I don't get a rest immediately and on of those herb worshippers keeps me up I' m going to crash like a car in a Litfassäule."

„Like what you nearly managed hours ago, -a-lot"

„Jahaaa."groaning it out it was clear that Milenko was way over his limits.

Moving further and trough the mossy wooden gate the group of three finally arrived at the mentioned monastery. Like the walls before mushrooms covered the inner walls too, illuminating a poison green or plasma blue light

But not only mushrooms emitted light, before the monastery was a small park with a tree avenue, and these trees, together with others placed around the part also gave light.

It was a magical place, like in a fantasy novel or perhaps science fiction, as if the group stepped into an undiscovered place of an ancient civilization. But instead of forgotten ruins, this place was full with live, whenever because of the threes, the insects like the light bugs that flew around in the grass and air or of the inhabitants that walked on the paths that got created by the time the grass was trampled on. Already awaited by a person, standing only two metres away from them.

„Greetings young travellers, I'm Mimiteh, second healer of this housing Gaias"

It was thanks to the light that came inside of the monastery that Cassia could identify their greeter as a female hare who, whilst her fur was mostly earth brown with some wooden brown spots here and there her hair colour was also plasma blue. But more weird was that they fluorescent like the threes and mushrooms, so did her iris, their colour was a neon orange like colour. The pronghorn was sure that even the verges of her ears glowed a bit. Whilst this looked a bit freakish, Cassia didn't felt any fear, for some reason the woman emitted a warm and friendly aura that also felt her companions.

„Please, feel free to come in and take the rest you've well deserved. I shall guide you to your place for the night."

Making a light bow the friendly hare with the calm voice pointed into the inside of the building, without hesitation they went inside.

Cassias eyes bounced open once she saw the halls, the rooms was either way lighted by torches hanging near the wall or from the already known mushrooms or bushes. The hall was mostly either way covered in the familiar moss or vines so was the floor, sometimes there where even some tree branches or roots. Only the windows remained free, some had cracks in them, but not one that she saw was broken, the wooden doors that got enhanced with iron nails and hinges didn't look in any way frail, only the metal had here and there some specks of rust. Thanks to the light Cassia was also able what their guide, or rather all inhabitants of this monastery wore.

At first sight it looked like as if someone cut three holes in a jute sack and put a simply cincture made of big string around the waist. But by looking closer she realized that what the hair wore made out of linen or some other fibre that had a slight grey tone. Other inhabitants that either way talked with each other or went into another room had rather similar clothings, but some looked more as if they got made out of wool, cotton, hair or even sometimes shaved fur. Despite not wearing it she could feel how itchy it must be to wearing such clothes.

Looking to their left and right, the pronghorn noticed she was not the only who watched and examined.

The inhabitants of the monastery where also eager to look at her, Jesse and Milenko, and whisperd about them, once they noticed the Pagans soon continued to either talk with their colleague or acted as if they weren't observing them. Again it wasn't treating for Cassia, more amusing how they tried to hide the oblivious and couldn't keep their curiosity.

„Please, apologize our members, I hope you can understand them, we don't have visitors often in our plain home. Mostly hikers who come to the woods from time to time."

„No big deal, we keep an eye on them."

Their guide let out a small chuckle before they turned around a corner, the hall became a bit thinner what made Milenko instead of walking next to Jesse to shift behind the deer.

„So tell me young pronghorn, do you know us good, the pagans that worship and praise the earths maker, protector? Gaia."

„Hmm-"

Deep down somewhere Cassia knew something she once or twice heard from some Egg-Soldiers or other personnel or was it from some sort of science magazine the doctor of their base had lying around, she couldn't remember, only that the info she had was barely nothing.

-your famous for doing those weird experiments with berries and herbs?"

For a moment Cassia feared to have said something wrong but the Hare just let out a deep, even a slight mighty sounding laugh. Way friendlier than the one in her nightmare.

„Well, that's one of our doings, but still so much more we do to connect with Gaia."

The somehow deep grumble of Milenko was for Jesse and Cassia, and she was sure that Mimiteh know too, obvious acted to display his discontent.

„What seems to be the problem, creator of who displays time?" again they turned around a corner, this time coming to a rather medium room with two doors on the front side.

„Moment mal, ah egal, I'm too tired for games. Lets just say that I know that some of the stuff you do involve que-"

„We're here far travellers, the door right to you hosts three beds, and a washing bowl for you, our restrooms are at the end of the corridor. If there is something else I can do for you please let me know."

It was Milenko that shoved himself trough Jesse to reach the door of the rooms, his body moved nearly mechanical mumbling something about „finally" and „Ruhe" he without noticing closed the door.

On the one side Cassia thought her companions behaviour was rude, on the other she could relate to him given that he drove the car for a while now plus having escaped a near death experience that costed him his wooden bungalow.

The remaining two turned to the hare who was about to leave.

"Thank you for showing us the way Ms. Mimiteh."

"And thanks for the room, you guys are alright."

Their escort gave them a slight but warm smile.

"I appreciate your words young ones. May Gaia guide you trough nights and days."

Having spoken out those last words the woman turned around and began to leave, in less than a few seconds she vanished around the corner.

The female hare didn't understate the room, with a bunk bed, a single bed that got already occupied by the humans vest, a washing bowl with three towels, a slim wardrobe, and a simple wooden stool the room was complete. There was also a wooden bucket next to the washing bowl filled with water that Milenko used to fill the pan.

"Ah finally, that'll help against the wound. I've left enough water for both of you, I, think."

Looking how Milenko washed his hair and face it was like in slow motion when the clear water got tainted in dried blood, ashes and dirt.

"Juck."

"Don't worry it'll be clean in no time."

Moving to a small window the human did a simple grip, opened the window and emptied the bowl, before turning around to his fellow room-mates and cleaning the bowl with one of the towels.

"Good as new."

But Cassia nor Jesse looked at the cleaned washing bowl in interest, it was rather Hatzinger, no, it was ON Hatzinger.

"Uh Mikenko?"

"Yes"

"What's that H for?"

On the Humans white shirt there was a big red H on his left side, it looked somehow threatening as if it was calling out some danger that was going out from Milenko.

"Oh that...well that's the brands name of course."

For both Mobians it was audible how the human spoke those words out with a tint of nervousness and being unsure.

"That big? You can see that a hundreds miles wide!"

"Eh, must be some designers choice, it doesn't bother me much."

With that said changing for the night happened fast, Jesse and Cassia went into their pyjamas from their backpacks in the bathrooms and Milenko slept in the gear he wore right now. Understandable given that every other clothing was probably turned to ash by now.

Blowing out the source of Light, a medium sized brown candle that stood on the stool in a simple white-blue glacéed candle stick the room got as dark as outdoors, only a faint blue light from one of the trees shined trough the window mixed with the glimmer illuminating from the half half-moon.

"And tomorrow-" letting out a yawn signalizing that he couldn't keep up his power much longer.

"-we, come to...city."

Fortunately for both remaining parties the question who got to sleep where was easily solved since Cassia decided to sleep in the upper bed and Jesse didn't mind wherever he would rest.

It went silent, Jesse was the next to fall asleep soon and so Cassia was the last stand of being awake, her thoughts dedicated to only one person.

"I promised you sis, I find a way, just a little longer, I, we will find something out to help you..."

* * *

 **For now our group of three might get their well deserved rest but who knows how it will look on the next day ;-.)**

 **And now for the review(s):**

 **DragoonSensei: Glad to hear that the chapter came out a bit intense, I feared that I would blew it with that moment and it would sound NOT intense ;-.)**

 **Lets just say that I have planned quite something for the future, and hope to continue soon with the next chapter, really, really hopefully.**

 **Until the next chapter I wish you dear readers goodbye.**

 **With friendly greetings**

 **The Bowlerhatwearer**


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